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Strange convergences abound today. I got a tweet from The Believer magazine (the belief in this case in in literature, not God or other associated entities) about an on-line exclusive article called Concerning the Spiritual In Indie Rock. It name-drops a lot of bands whose place in the rock music world in roughly analogous to the place of Available Light’s favorite playwrights in the theatre world, including Young Jean Lee – Animal Collective, Neutral Milk Hotel, Arcade Fire, Ponytail, Mae Shi, Sufjan Stevens, and one my recent favorites, Yeasayer.

The article takes a close look at how various measures of secular spirituality, doubt, and devout (usually Christian) belief mix in the work of these edgy, explorational bands. The stand-out quotation here is about Yeasayer’s most recent release, All Hour Cymbals.

Chris Keating, who sings and plays keyboards, calls All Hour Cymbals a nonbeliever’s attempt to understand what devotion and awe might feel like. The album, he says, strives to awaken through art the feelings others go to church seeking.

The article’s author, Judy Berman, follows-up with a diagnosis that rings very true in my life.

These days, mainstream religion feels largely divorced from metaphysics. The language of good and evil has been co-opted in the service of countless holy wars, and Christian leaders spend more time railing against gay marriage than debating the nature of the human soul. Those of us who can’t buy into these crusades must find other marvels to contemplate. As Keating recognizes, art may help to fill a void left by organized religion: Indie rock’s predominantly young, urban, and irreligious audience kneels to worship at the foot of a stage. Bible study is replaced by ritualistic listening and re-listening to tease out the meaning or simply bask in the bliss of favorite albums.

Indeed, even in my most spiritual moments, I find it nearly impossible to relate to what Berman calls “mainstream religion”.

And, as if on cue, another story arrives via Twitter to remind me of the (from my perspective) strange people who fill the vast gulf that separates the doubters from the most devout.

WAUSAU, Wisc. – The mother of an 11-year-old girl who died of undiagnosed diabetes as the family prayed for her to get better testified Tuesday that she believes sickness is caused by sin and can be cured by God.

Leilani Neumann told the jury in her husband’s trial that she thought her daughter’s March 2008 illness was a test of her religious faith and she didn’t take the girl to a doctor because that would have been “complete disobedience to what we believe.”

It’s important to note that Mrs. Neumann did not belong to an “organized religion”, and so please don’t think I’m considering her part of “mainstream religion.” Nevertheless, this story is a disturbing illustration of the kind of events that make it so difficult for some of us to understand others of us.

So yes, I’ve just outed myself, I have doubt. So, why, you might wonder, am I directing Church? I’ll just quote Mr. Yeasayer from above, and say that in part, it’s “a nonbeliever’s attempt to understand what devotion and awe might feel like.” I do think that whether you’re a believer or not, it’s right and good to have a regular, healthy dose of devotion and awe in your life. Hopefully this production will deliver some of that for everyone who sees it.

The New York Times had a great review and a little slide-show about Church from when it was in NYC at PS122. The audio/photo bit is great because Young Jean Lee talks about her personal experience with religion a bit. (Once you go here, click on “LEE” to skip to her part.)

Here’s an excerpt from the review:

People of faith are often treated as either jokes or villains in the downtown theater scene, but that may be starting to change.

Still, most seasoned audiences would expect that a drama by an experimental playwright at Performance Space 122 featuring four ministers discussing God’s glory is inviting smirks. But Young Jean Lee, who wrote and directed “Church,” isn’t joking — or if she is, the joke is on us. Her slyly subversive drama ambushes its audience with an earnest and surprisingly moving Christian church service that might be the most unlikely provocation produced in years.

With a cast of speakers, Ms. Lee, described in the press materials as a nonbelieving daughter of Korean-American evangelicals, portrays the kind of Christians secular downtown hipsters may find hard to dismiss: open-minded, liberal, tolerant.

“I don’t know that God exists any more than I know that God doesn’t exist,” says José (Greg Hildreth), a cerebral minister who mocks the arm-flailing brand of preacher sent up by the performance artist Reverend Billy. “The truth is that the world is a mystery.”

Here’s what playwright Young Jean Lee’s website has to say about her play Church

“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Playwright and director Young Jean Lee transforms her life-long struggle with Christianity into an exuberant church service designed to test the expectations of the religious and non-religious alike. Using music, dancing, and preaching, four liberal Evangelical Christian ministers with a taste for the surreal offer God as a solution to the hollowness of contemporary life.

“[Young Jean Lee’s] slyly subversive drama [CHURCH] ambushes its audience with an earnest and surprisingly moving Christian church service that might be the most unlikely provocation produced in years.” – The New York Times

Acacia and I saw Young Jean Lee’s own production of the show in January 2008, and the Public Theatre as part of the NYC Under the Radar Festival. Interestingly, the premiere of the show, at PS122, was supported in part by our very own Wexner Center for the arts.